UK Parliament rubber-stamps EMERGENCY data grab 'n' keep bill

Just 49 MPs oppose Drip's rushed timetable

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Britain's politicians waved through a motion today in which they agreed that the Home Secretary Theresa May's "emergency" Data Retention and Investigatory Powers bill should be swiftly pushed through Parliament.

Only 49 MPs voted against the motion, while 436 politicos rubber-stamped Drip's hastily cobbled together timetable.

A second reading of the draft law is taking place in the House of Commons now. It's expected to be passed by Thursday, after scrutiny in the Lords and just days before MPs break for the summer recess on 22 July.

May indicated this afternoon that a six-month review of the legislation demanded by the Labour Party would be accepted by the Tory-led government.

She reiterated that the rushed through law was necessary to "put beyond doubt the [UK's] law of interception". The Home Sec also claimed that there would be "no change to the definitions of communication data that already existed".

As May wound down her Parliamentary lobbying, the Secretary of State once again said that the proposed law had nothing to do with her unloved Communications Data Bill. She said it was "emphatically not what we are considering today."

Very sad that the Labour front bench is complicit in steamrolling through the emergency surveillance law #DRIP

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said that people will only continue to support such powers if "safeguards aren't abused". She said trust among the British public was low because the government was rushing the bill through Parliament.

Nonetheless, Cooper said: "We cannot reject this legislation; it would be wrong to do so."

The MP added that it could be used "to get the wider debate we need" on surveillance laws in Blighty, which includes a full review of the Regulation Investigatory Powers Act - a legislation passed by the then-Labour government in 2000. ®